Ahmadiyya Muslim Elders donate thousands to charity

The Members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community hosted an Eid dinner and charity cheque presentation at the Parkview Centre, Sheerwater, Woking on Thursday 31st, October 2013.

The event was aimed at fostering peace and highlighting service to society.

Guests included Councillor Anne Roberts, the Mayor of Woking, Jonathan Lord MP, various charity representatives and the Assistant Commissioner for Equality and Diversity, Shiraz Mirza.

The keynote address was delivered by the Imam of the London Mosque, Ata-ul Mujeeb Rashed, who elaborated on the two major Muslim festivals, Eid-ul-Fitr, which comes at the end of the month of Ramadhan, and Eid-ul-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice, marking the completion of Hajj (Pilgrimage to Makkah).

The Imam also stated that true peace is really only established when one recognises and come’s closer to one’s Creator.

The Imam ended his speech by quoting from the ‘Farwell Address’ of the Holy Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) emphasising the equality of mankind –

‘All of you are equal. All men, whatever nation or tribe they may belong to, and whatever station in life they may hold, are equal. Even as fingers of the two hands are equal, so are human beings equal to one another. No one has any right, any superiority to claim over another. You are as brothers.’

Just under £3,000 was presented to charities including The Mayor’s charities and three other local charities, which included the St, Peter’s Hospital Early Births Fund, Friends of Chernobyl’s Children and The York Road Project, from money raised by Majlis Ansarullah’s (the Ahmadiyya Muslim Elders Association) Annual Charity Walk for Peace.

The Mayor, Cllr Anne Roberts welcomed the charity work and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community ‘reaching out to the people of Woking.

Jonathan Lord MP commented that it was good to see people represented from all groups and there was much to learn from the world’s great religions.